And those chances were further reduced by the well-publicized uneasiness of some CBS executives about the series before it premiered. With fewer than one-third of this season's new prime-time shows likely to survive until spring, the odds seem slim that Ball Four will last long enough to fully explore baseball's other side. Pill-popping, religion and women sports-writers in the locker room and homosexuality are some of the issues that he would like to cover. Even today, you could count on one hand the number of gay-athlete series regulars have been on TV in the last couple years. While the series was short-lived (only five episodes aired), it was an important break into national television. Jim Bouton, a starter turned relief pitcher, is attempting to resurrect his baseball career as a knuckleballer with the expansion Seattle Pilots, a team with a. The series included one of the first regular gay characters in TV history: A gay rookie ballplayer.
In 1976 he co-created and co-wrote a sitcom for CBS with the same name as his book. Bouton was spurned for the book by many in baseball. The book chronicled his 1969 season in the Major Leagues and brought to the public eye the rampant womanizing and drug use taking place in Major League Baseball. Major League pitcher Jim Bouton had caused quite a stir with his 1970 book, Ball Four. He won 39 games in 19 and then his career, and the Yankees’ dynasty, went downhill. He’d spent the previous season in the minor leagues after beginning his career in 1962 with the New York Yankees. Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history.īaseball, 1976. Jim Bouton was a major league pitcher for the New York Yankees, Seattle Pilots, Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves. Ball Four was written during the 1969 season by Bouton, a knuckleball pitcher trying to get his career back on track.
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